Proud member of the three times a lady club. The funny thing is I've decked more often than I've lobbed over a meter and a half.

Take it from me kids, don't follow my example. Learn to fall early, take a few big safe lobs. I am a total and complete coward when it comes to falling. I basically just don't do it. I'm pretty conservative I spose. On a sport climb I downclimb to the last bolt or grab a draw. No grabbing bolts tho, I have my pride. On trad I sweat and pray and shake, cry a little and things seem to work out. This is the one thing that has held my climbing back more than anything else.

But back to the deck:
1) Belayer Error - at Billy Goat Rock in California. Bolt at my knees, first real lead ever. I was climbing, scared as hell, told my belayer I was going to fall, and then I did. About 30 feet. How did I get down here? Why am I lying down?
2) Solo aid on some crap rock elsewhere in CA. Ripped the pitch but landed softly due to deep forest duff and a steep slope at the bottom. Everyone should have the pleasure of the suprise sound of a knifeblade fighting free. Schwingggg!
3) Least exciting, Rope soloing. Broke a hold while pulling rope to clip bolt #2. Saved again by the deep forest duff.

On 1/03/2012 Wendy wrote:>>I'd expect that considering you climb in a harness with a notably frayed>belay loop and tie in point. Been harness shopping yet?

The tie in point is fine, just cosmetic damage. Belay loop is maybe 5% frayed.......I'm still suss that 20% frayed leads to catastrophic failure, bet there was something else going on with Todd's harness (a cut or chemical damage)

Apparently nylon can rip just like...nylon. I've been told that it takes a small nick and you can rip it easily. Though I don't really know how that squares with fraying instead of a neat nick. I woulda thought if there were other factors in Todd skinners death it would be well known

As for my ground fall, it was because daave is a skinny bastard and I'm a fat bastard. Any sport route with a tough overhung/roof start that I fall off on leaves me standing on the ground (softly) and Dave hanging around at the first bolt

On 1/03/2012 Olbert wrote:>Apparently nylon can rip just like...nylon. I've been told that it takes>a small nick and you can rip it easily. Though I don't really know how>that squares with fraying instead of a neat nick. I woulda thought if there>were other factors in Todd skinners death it would be well known

Yeah, I don't really understand how all of that stuff applies to webbing and ropes. Everyone has a few fibers cut on their draws and slings and rope, unless they're brand new. At what point does the number of cut fibers disproportionately affect the strength?

I also would have thought that they must have done an exhaustive check on Skinner's gear, but its a mystery to me how cutting 20% of the fibers on a 2 ton sling can bring it down to <100kg breaking strength.

I think Todd Skinners belay loop would have been really really stuffed to have broken, maybe got some battery acid on it, who knows? What I know is belay loops are meant to be really strong, certainly don't rip.
BD did some tests on damaged belay loops here:http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/climb/qclab/qc-lab-strength-of-worn-belay-loops
Some impressive results were-" ~75% cut through—both sides (not the best photo)—2918 lbf"
and even "~ 90% cut through—one side—777 lbf:"
If I can cut 90% through my belay loop and it will still hold the equivalent of a top rope fall or a no 1 RP I won't be worried about any lack of redundancy.

This is because the load bearing fibres of tape are on the surface, and not protected by an outer sheath like rope. In fact, every time a tape sling is abraded, it loses some of its strength. This was visibly demonstrated at the "Know Your Stuff" Conference. Two identical new tape slings were taken. One was nicked with a knife part way through, the other rubbed quickly against a brick wall. The sling with the knife cut looked the most damaged, but in fact failed at over its stated load. However the abraded sling had lost upto 30% of its strength almost immediately.

On 1/03/2012 ajfclark wrote:>The sling with the knife cut looked>the most damaged, but in fact failed at over its stated load. However the>abraded sling had lost upto 30% of its strength almost immediately.

I'm with Mike and Doug, as one deck fall was down climbing unroped, and the second was numpty gri gri user not controlling the rope with the leaver cranked wide open feeding out slack as I came off. Lucky for me I landed on sand and not a total splat as I guess even though the handle was wide open (how else could I have fallen the 6 or 7 meters) there might have been a little bit of friction.

I'm sure if Dalai is reading this he'll have one to share...1996...Nowra...ain't no sunshine...trying to get photos in the crisp morning light..."here, just use this"...moral of the story? explain what a gri gri is and how it works before you let some stoned muppet try to figure it out for themselves...but donuts in Berry are the best apologisers!

On 1/03/2012 f_abe wrote:>I'm sure if Dalai is reading this he'll have one to share...1996...Nowra...ain't>no sunshine...trying to get photos in the crisp morning light..."here,>just use this"...moral of the story? explain what a gri gri is and how>it works before you let some stoned muppet try to figure it out for themselves...but>donuts in Berry are the best apologisers!

Pretty sure there were words such as "Yes, I've used a gri gri before. You'll be fine..." Warm up run falling off the crux - fall is a nice long lob but doesn't start slowing down. Look down to see my belayer with rope zipping through the gri gri; land on my side in a fetal position which matched the only dirt patch amongst rocks. Other than being stunned I was completely unscathed!

Just once to the ground, Bon Voyage out at Black Hill - probably 4 or 5 metres up when I lost contact. The belayer did a good job but the rope stretch was enough for my left leg to touch down. Had a lot of trouble with the clutch on the way home and coudn't walk comfortably for a week or so afterwards.
Landed on the belayer one time at Nowra but didn't count that as she managed to keep me of the ground despite the inconvenience of having me alight on her shoulder.

On 1/03/2012 Wendy wrote:>Fűck, you guys deck out a lot. I must have been doing something right>the past 20 odd years. Either that, or being a wuss pays off.

Wendy I do recall you have had some epics. I know the 10m fall you took down the first abseil in Empress wasn't a 'lead fall' but it counts as a big grounder in my book. "Girl fall means no exageration!"

I think, like me you went ... "no recollection of lead falls!" ... then after some pondering a couple seem to begin to creep into my reachable memory files :). If I landed on the haul bag is it still a ground fall?